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Wednesday 11 March 2026
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for what we mean by Science Fiction; here for the masthead; here for some Statistics; here for the Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
Site updated on 9 March 2026
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Casper, Susan
(1947-2017) US editor and author, married to Gardner Dozois until her death. She began publishing sf with "Spring-Fingered Jack" for Fears (anth 1983) edited by Charles Grant. Her fiction in collaboration with Dozois is assembled in Slow Dancing through Time (coll 1990), which includes one collaboration with both Dozois and Jack M Dann. These stories are also ...
Rip Hunter, Time Master
A DC Comics Superhero, created by Jack Miller and Ruben Moreira in 1959; after appearances in Showcase, he graduated to his own title, which lasted from 1961 to 1965. He is a Scientist who invents a time-traveling vehicle, the Time Sphere (see Time Travel), and with three colleagues – Jeff Smith, Bonnie Baxter, and Corky Baxter – he made regular ...
Coxson, Richard
(? - ) US author whose sf trilogy, the Core Empire sequence beginning with Orphan's Test (2022), a Space Opera set seemingly in the Long Night after a vast monarchical Galactic Empire has crumbled. A traditional note is introduced through the protagonist' discovery that he is heir to the abandoned throne. [JC]
Sarnia
Pseudonym of New Zealand-born author Alice Dew-Smith (1859-1949), in the UK from the 1870s; she is of some sf interest for A White Umbrella and Other Stories (coll 1895); in the third story, "A Ballet in the Skies", the narrator is taken to the Moon by "flowers". [JC]
Virtuosity
Film (1995). Paramount Pictures presents a Gary Lucchesi production. Directed by Brett Leonard. Written by Eric Bernt. Cast includes Russell Crowe, Kelly Lynch and Denzel Washington. 102 minutes. Colour. / Virtuosity combines Hollywood staple themes of Virtual Reality and the indestructible killer, but at its heart is a traditional thriller of cop versus criminal. SID 6.7 (Crowe) is a debonair, if psychotic Artificial Intelligence (see ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...